There is no longer a question whether Broncos running back Willis McGahee will play despite a broken hand Sunday against the Oakland Raiders.

The question is whether McGahee can grip the ball sufficiently with a broken hand.

“Want to shake my hand?” McGahee said.

A mere 10 days after McGahee underwent an operation in which he had a plate and five pins inserted to repair a fourth metacarpal fracture on his right, ball- carrying hand, his handshake was strong enough to crush a medium-sized cantaloupe. “It’s strong, it’s good and it just gets better,” McGahee said.

The Raiders don’t need a seance with Al Davis to know the Broncos will try to run the ball Sunday to help take some pressure off quarterback Tim Tebow, who has passed erratically since he became the starter two weeks ago.

McGahee is the Broncos’ leading rusher with 460 yards and has just one fumble in 103 carries.

The broken hand forced him to sit and watch his team get drubbed by Detroit 45-10 last week. Not that the running game was the problem as the Broncos rushed for 195 yards on 30 carries, a 6.5-yard average.

The Tebow factor.

In the two games Tebow has started, the Broncos have rushed for 372 yards and have hurdled from 20th to eighth overall in the NFL rankings in that span. Tebow has 122 yards rushing on 19 carries in those two games.

Special teams.

The Broncos will not have two of their better special-teams players available against Oakland. Tight end Virgil Green (neck) and cornerback Cassius Vaughn (hamstring) have been ruled out. And don’t count on rookie safety Quinton Carter (concussion) to play, either.

Carter had started the previous two games at free safety, but his injury means another rookie, Rahim Moore, will get his job back this week.

Key for Broncos.

Only three NFL teams have caused fewer turnovers than the Broncos’ eight this season: Indianapolis, Miami and Pittsburgh. Indy and Miami are a combined 0-15.

The 6-2 Steelers are defying all laws of turnover probability. Halfway through the season, the Steelers have twice as many wins (six) as takeaways (three, a league-low).

With Raiders quarterback Carson Palmer signed and throwing three interceptions in one half of play against Kansas City in his first appearance, the Broncos’ best chance of pulling off an upset may be if Denver’s D can create two or more turnovers.

Mike Klis was with The Denver Post from Jan. 1, 1998 before leaving in 2015 to join KUSA 9News. He covered the Rockies and Major League Baseball until the 2005 All-Star break, when he was asked to start covering the Broncos.

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